Going For Three?

The mild winter and warm March here seems to have put everything in overdrive, even the wildlife. The bluebirds nested early, and by March 22 there were 5 small blue eggs in the nest box. Bluebird watching has become one of our favorite sports here at HA.

March bluebird nest with 5 eggs (click on any image to enlarge)

Those eggs hatched in early April, and by Earth Day they had fledged. My wife scooped me on that event, getting a great shot of a very young bluebird sitting on the ground, waiting to be fed. I managed to get one fuzzy shot later that day of a young bluebird sitting on the grass. We haven’t seen much of the young birds since then.

young bluebird

A couple of days later, I cleaned out the nest box, which had become quite a mess. The parents do a great job of house cleaning when the young are small, but the nest box eventually gets messy when five young birds are crammed in there! I checked on the box yesterday to see if anything was happening, and was surprised to see a finished nest with one egg.

nest with one egg on May 2

At this rate, the bluebird pair could easily raise three broods this year. It’s exciting to me to have a ringside seat for these events, and the bluebirds have become a regular presence here in our lives. And all that certainly helps with the HQ (happiness quotient) here at HA!

4 Responses to Going For Three?

Ah to have bluebirds. We get sparrows, mocking birds and blue jays here. We had a lot more variety at my last house that was in the woods. Here we tend to get the pest birds. At least I don’t have pigeons. Last year we did get some goldfinches to visit when the sunflowers were ripening. They were fun to watch.

I love the colour of the eggs – just beautiful. Whilst we do get some nice native birds here – honeyeaters, wattlebirds and the occasional lorikeet we also get a lot of annoying introduced species. Blackbirds, Sparrows and Mynahs are keeping the more desirable birds out of my garden most of the time.